1,200 pieces of artwork fill University Health System hospital

Updated 6:09 pm, Friday, April 4, 2014

Ed Carpenter's “Foxglove” in the Sky Tower was inspired by the plant from which the cardiac medicine digitalis was extracted.

Ed Carpenter's “Foxglove” in the Sky Tower was inspired by the plant from which the cardiac medicine digitalis was extracted.

Photo: Courtesy Mark C. Greenberg

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Sabine Senft's “Embrace” graces a rooftop garden at the Sky Tower.

Sabine Senft's “Embrace” graces a rooftop garden at the Sky Tower.

Photo: Courtesy Mark C. Greenberg

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“The Flower of Hope” is an abstract sculpture by Sebastián, who did “The Torch of Friendship” downtown.

“The Flower of Hope” is an abstract sculpture by Sebastián, who did “The Torch of Friendship” downtown.

Photo: Courtesy Mark C. Greenberg

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Ansen Seale's light installation “You Activate the Space” does just that. It has sensors that alter the piece as people walk by on their way to and from the parking garage.

Ansen Seale's light installation “You Activate the Space” does just that. It has sensors that alter the piece as people walk by on their way to and from the parking garage.

Photo: Courtesy Ansen Seale

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Riley Robinson's "Bluebonnets" is mounted on a sandstone wall in the hospital's entryway.

Riley Robinson's "Bluebonnets" is mounted on a sandstone wall in the hospital's entryway.

Photo: Mark Greenberg, Photo By Mark C. Greenberg

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The University Hospital System Sky Tower, designed by Perkins + Will, is rooted in the past but meant to look forward.

The University Hospital System Sky Tower, designed by Perkins + Will, is rooted in the past but meant to look forward.

Photo: Photo By Steve Bennett

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Every hospital room at the Sky Tower has a work of original art such as Rolando Briseno's "Cosmic Mirror."

Every hospital room at the Sky Tower has a work of original art such as Rolando Briseno's "Cosmic Mirror."

Photo: Mark Greenberg, Photo By Mark C. Greenberg

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David Boyajian's "Orange Twist" was placed in a rooftop garden at the Sky Tower.

David Boyajian's "Orange Twist" was placed in a rooftop garden at the Sky Tower.

Photo: Mark Greenberg, Photo By Mark C. Greenberg

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In this publicity image released by Fox Searchlight films, Brad Pitt, left, and Laramie Eppler are shown in a scene from "The Tree of Life." For the first time in the three years since Oscar organizers expanded the best-picture category to more than five films, there's not a single blockbuster in the running. The Tree of Life took in a slim $13.3 million domestically. (AP Photo/Fox Searchlight, Merie Wallace) less

In this publicity image released by Fox Searchlight films, Brad Pitt, left, and Laramie Eppler are shown in a scene from "The Tree of Life." For the first time in the three years since Oscar organizers expanded ... more

Photo: AP Photo

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Martin Donlin's large wall installation "Hippocrates" pays homage to the ancient Greek physician known as "the father of Western medicine."

Martin Donlin's large wall installation "Hippocrates" pays homage to the ancient Greek physician known as "the father of Western medicine."

“The sandstone speaks to our history — bringing to mind the Bexar County Courthouse,” said Leni Kirkman, vice president of strategic communications and patient relations for the taxpayer-supported health system. “We wanted to have that as our foundation as the upper floors reach up into the sky, looking to the future.”

The $787-million Sky Tower, opening April 14, is — for a hospital with more than 1 million square feet — warm and welcoming.

A key element in that open-arms atmosphere is the artwork that greets patients and their families as they enter the grounds and continues throughout the high-tech, environmentally conscious facility.

Built into the budget was $1.2 million for art. According to Allison Hays, who coordinated the artwork through the Salud-Arte: Art of Healing Program, 1,200 works of original art — from prints and paintings to glass art and monumental commissioned works of sculpture — fill the building and its grounds and gardens. The tower features work by more than 275 artists, representing eight countries. More than 150 of them are Texans, and 100 are from San Antonio.

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“We were able to look at a lot of the top artists in contemporary art,” Hays said.

Incorporating artwork is an ongoing theme in health care design.

“It's a positive distraction,” said Brita Pearson of Perkins + Will, the architecture firm that designed the Sky Tower. “Studies show that patients heal faster and ask for less pain medication. The staff thinks their day is two hours shorter.”

Arriving at the tower, patients and their families are greeted by the canary yellow “Flower of Hope” by Sebastián, the Mexican sculptor who created the bright orange “Torch of Friendship” downtown.

On a textured sandstone wall in the front driveway sprouts San Antonio artist Riley Robinson's vertical field of “Bluebonnets,” an installation representing 4,000 of Texas' state flower, rendered in steel and powder-coated in blue and green, with individual touches of white.

“Someone said with the drought we may have the only bluebonnets in town,” Hays said with a laugh.

In the soaring lobby, full of natural light, Ed Carpenter's “Foxglove,” inspired by the plant that gave us the cardiac medicine digitalis, climbs a pillar, while at the other end of the space, British artist Martin Donlin's “Hippocrates,” an ode to “the father of Western medicine,” occupies a wall.

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An upstairs waiting room has a triptych of paintings by Jane Swanson, who was shot in the head in 2003 by a co-worker at her part-time job at a Century 21 office on Loop 1604.

Of “Blessed,” Kirkman said, “This project has been so healing for Jane. It took a full year to paint these paintings.”

Other San Antonio artists with work in the Sky Tower include Brooke Rosser, Nate Cassie, Rolando Briseño and Angel Rodríguez Díaz.

Ansen Seale's interactive light installation “You Activate the Space” enlivens the skyway to and from the parking garage.

“Every patient room has a work of original art in it,” Hays said. “And that continues in the nurses stations and public areas.”

Kirkman points out that patients and their families coming to a hospital are often apprehensive or scared.

“It's a way for them to find beauty in what can seem a cold and unwelcoming place,” she said. “On another level, it's often a high-stress environment for staff, so you give them something beautiful to look at besides a cold, white wall.”

But Kirkman is quick to add that it's not just art for art's sake, or beauty for beauty's sake.

“We didn't want the art to just be pretty,” she said. “We wanted the artwork to mesh with our mission of healing and community.”